In the business world, the ability to accurately predict costs is critical to providing products and services to customers. To determine the costs associated with its operations, a business may rely upon modeling software. In doing so, the business may estimate the total costs it will incur throughout the various phases of, for example, design, development, production and/or performance of the product or service. In addition, by modeling expected costs, the business may compare alternative scenarios for new products or services. For instance, by varying the choice of components included in a model, a business can determine the cost savings achieved by substituting one component or activity for another.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems include powerful software tools for modeling costs associated with a business's products and services. A particular business may develop cost templates for its ERP system that model different activities performed by the business and include cost functions for providing these products and services. To ensure accuracy, the business may invest great time and expense in developing these templates for their operations. With the cost templates and data stored in the ERP system, the ERP system may estimate costs associated with products or services. In addition, the business may determine whether a particular process is conforming to a prior estimate.
Because ERP systems generally maintain updated, business-wide information of a business's costs, estimates produced by evaluating cost templates in an ERP system can be particularly accurate. Furthermore, since the ERP system may model indirect costs associated with overhead activities in addition to direct costs associated with a product or service (e.g., direct labor and material), the cost estimate may accurately represent the total cost for a product or service.
In light of the advantages of using an ERP system and templates for cost estimation, a business may wish to access its ERP system and templates for estimating the cost of new products while, at the same time, not disrupting the business's ongoing operations. For instance, when creating cost estimates for new products, a business may prefer not to change the templates, cost objects or data within the ERP system that the business relies on to manage its manufacturing processes. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to access and use the templates from an environment outside of the ERP system to create cost estimates and/or price quotes for new products including elements that are not modeled or do not yet exist within the ERP system.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods that address one or more of the above-noted needs. Moreover, there is a need for improved systems and methods for calculating cost estimates in an external cost estimation system using cost templates of a cost evaluation system, such as an ERP system. In addition, there is also a need for systems and methods that estimate the cost of products or services including items not already modeled or included in an ERP system.